I think Diogu will be a solid player in the league for many years to come. However, I still think that he has potential to be your modern day version of Oliver Miller (let's hope not). I think he's a slight upgrade to Murphy and will fill in his void well once he gets moved. The truth of the matter is, that this offseason is the Amare/Yao sweepstakes. Dunleavy/Foyle/Murphy/Fisher all could be dumpable because we have cheaper versions of them on the bench (or can easily acquire cheaper versions of them.) This year Mully plays it safe and fills up the stands with new season ticket holders and rewards the Warrior faithful with some entertaining basketball before shipping a lot of the baggage out come trading deadline. Dun has Zarko Murphy has Diogu Foyle has nobody, but a defensive minded young center can be found for cheaper if need be (I still don't see Foyle going anywhere unless we can somehow get Yao to leave which I don't see happening) Fisher's can be replaced by 75% of the journeyman point guards in the league that actually play point guard.
My concerns are all your concerns guys, but Diogu is worth getting over if he's merely just a solid double double role player if the future is indeed on Pietrus and J-Rich and Biedrins. I'm definitely a firm believer that the most well financially managed teams are partly the ones that stay good for a long, long time. The Spurs and the Pistons really don't have anyone super exciting, but they've both got a knack for finding talent that fits and not overpaying for it (Duncan, Ginobilli and Wallace are great but they're not exciting on the level of Kobe Bryant or Shaq and they've relatively got decent salaries for the huge amount of talent they bring). It's also hard to be like the Lakers and wind up with a high schooler that turns into the closest thing to MJ and also happens to have the most dominant center of the decade as a FA from Orlando. Those guys attract all kinds of FA's who want to play with those guys for cheap. So I hope like Cohan and Kwan mention here or earlier that we just add talent that fits and take better care of how flexible we are with the payroll and the talent we can afford to add on every year. Momentum is key.
Diogu is certain to be at worst a Corliss type,he has too many talents and too much hustle to bomb totally. However-the whole POINT to picking Ike-is that the PROBABILITIES are he is quite a lot better than that. We had options and Ike was the pick because we don't have to wait while he gets a work ethic and learns fundamentals. We have a role for him from the start-and he's got the game to play from the start. Oliver Miller had skills. In college I saw him help Arkansas beat LSU-because his D neutralized Shaq in the second half. Oliver,however had a tendency to pork out,was unable to just stay somewhere below 300 lb,especially if not playing starter minutes. Ike does not have a runaway weight problem,in fact,I'm pretty sure he played a little lighter as a jr than as a soph. I'd prefer he played at 245,rather than 255. He has strength to spare either way,but moves better at a lower weight-which adds a lot to his versatility. I'm not ready to say Ike is gonna be an All Star-or isn't,but he's gonna make us feel good about picking him. Come trade deadline-we ought to be at .500 or better and will not be dumping a lot of players. We likely will want to be open to deals,obviously,Fish is on the table. I doubt we are hasty to "unload" Murphy and Foyle. Look at the $$$ thrown at big men who,objectively,are no better. The W's really want to seize the opportunity to be a playoff team,and should feel they have the players to do that. Moves apt to backfire ain't likely,not now.
I didn't know this but Zach Randolph weighed down to 253 lbs. Didn't he used to be 270? Anyway, Diogu seems to me, to be more in line with something of a Zach Randolph, more activity on defense, more inclination to give up that ball if he can recognize the outlet sooner. Diogu might struggle in his first year coming off the bench in odd minutes, but I think he could be the type to adjust rather quickly and become better than anticipated. The circumstances are he was drafted #9 with the expectancy that he would contribute right away. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/zach_randolp...x.html?nav=page Also I agree with REREM about the ridiculous $$$ being thrown at big men because the market is just slim to grab a decent big guy, so the price goes up because of high demand/low supply. Plus, it doesn't help that teams with all that cap (usually lotto teams who just dumped their good players for expiring contracts) piss their money away on garbage big men. Oh wait, I guess I shouldn't speak too soon. Sometimes, I forget which team I'm rooting for. Ah, Foyle ain't that bad, it's just he's nowhere close to being 8 mil per year for 5 years when he's realistically a backup center.
Ike's game was not too quiet. I was thinking at one point. Man, how many points does Ike have? I thought 25, then the announcer said 29. He got a lot of fouled alot under the basket, but shot a lot of jumpers. I hope he does not fall in love with that jumper. We did not draft him to be a jump shooting PF like Murphy, we drafted him to be a banger down low, a guy that draws a lot of fouls and finishes at the line. You know the great scorers always get to the line. Rarely do they score 30+pts just by hitting 10-15FGs. They make those FGs then also hit 8-10 from the line. Jrich would be a 25ppg scorer if he got to the line more often and hit his free throws...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Warriorfansnc93:</div><div class="quote_post">Ike's game was not too quiet. I was thinking at one point. Man, how many points does Ike have? I thought 25, then the announcer said 29. He got a lot of fouled alot under the basket, but shot a lot of jumpers. I hope he does not fall in love with that jumper. We did not draft him to be a jump shooting PF like Murphy, we drafted him to be a banger down low, a guy that draws a lot of fouls and finishes at the line. You know the great scorers always get to the line. Rarely do they score 30+pts just by hitting 10-15FGs. They make those FGs then also hit 8-10 from the line. Jrich would be a 25ppg scorer if he got to the line more often and hit his free throws...</div> I thought the same thing but in other games i saw when Ike's jumper wasn't falling he would work inside more. I think he was just shooting them because they were all going in, and every time he got close to the rim he got fouled and with his FT shooting percentage that is a great thing (especially if he gets that many fouls coming off our bench).
That's a good point about free throws, WFS93. If we had more players that could work their way to the line it does 2 things: 1.) Takes the amount of pressure off the scoring team because of the free throw bonus (after 4 team fouls) because defenses tend to play off in order to avoid sending someone to the line. 2.) It forces player changes due to early personal foul trouble or trying to work in better matchups and that probably takes away some of the team's offense or scoring momentum. Especially true is their best scorer is also their biggest defensive liability and they don't have great secondary go-to guys. But the main thing is just puts pressure on the other team. Also on the thing about Ike: if Ike wants to play inside more, I don't see why we couldn't play Murphy at center to complement the "inside-outside" threat if the other team's forward/center are some big stiffs that don't really do much. Supposedly Murphy might be working on some low post moves this summer as he was showing some low post stuff during the season. Since either power forward or center can ideally score from anywhere, it can really make some of the inside players work more by running around chasing these guys all over. But that's only if they're moving the ball around and actually hitting those perimeter shots to begin with, because inside against bigger players might spell trouble for both of them. Also on Murphy, I remembered Barnett said he was asking him for advice and tips on how to score around the basket. Not sure if he's the right guy to ask, but Barnett did mention on a broadcast that Murphy's work ethic and desire to improve in areas has set him apart from other players who don't normally bring something new every year like Richardson or Murphy do. IMO, that's probably how Mullin justified giving into the contracts that Murphy/Richardson's agent was asking for. Whether we'll see results and something new this year is yet to be seen. Hopefully, they won't cap out in terms of potential.
Yeah that is something you definately can not knock on those guys is their work ethic and desire to improve their games. I respect that big time. What I hate about Murphy is how he keeps getting his shot blocked and how he does not even attempt to block shots down low. Its like he is afraid to foul the guy. Screw that! Block that guy's shot who just blocked yours!
Mullin won't likely collect a lot of slackers. He was a hard worker. Diogu was the NCAA leader in Free throws made out of a lot of players. He has the Pac 10 record for FTA and FTM. It's a pretty safe guess that he will get to the line more than most guys.
Yeah 6'10-6'11 veteran pro Murphy getting stuffed by midgets is pretty frustrating to watch. You think as you're watching, "man what a pus-- throwing up a layup like that. Throw it on his dome, homey." or at least pump fake and step around or release it higher and use glass. I think the one thing Diogu is going to do better than Troy is he's going to be better about pumpfaking. Sure in SL, he got blocked a lot while sneaking it in for a layup or post fadeaway jumper, but I think he's going to have a period of adjustment and he will eventually adjust. Also pump-faking after terminating the dribble is just hardly seen because pros just don't go for it, especially if all they have to do is stand up and put a hand up to alter your shooting hand. Back to Troy Murphy though: until he uses his right hand more, the guy's gotta stay on the left side of the basket. It would probably lessen his chances of being blocked by 6'4 guards, especially because he can use a free hand to ward off from that angle of attack.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting REREM:</div><div class="quote_post">Mullin won't likely collect a lot of slackers. He was a hard worker. Diogu was the NCAA leader in Free throws made out of a lot of players. He has the Pac 10 record for FTA and FTM. It's a pretty safe guess that he will get to the line more than most guys.</div> You have to admit though there will be a period of adjustment for Diogu in not only the size mismatches going against him. The whistles in the nba are a lot different, especially in every game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting REREM:</div><div class="quote_post">Mullin won't likely collect a lot of slackers. He was a hard worker. Diogu was the NCAA leader in Free throws made out of a lot of players. He has the Pac 10 record for FTA and FTM. It's a pretty safe guess that he will get to the line more than most guys.</div> Remember how many times Karl Malone used to get to the line per game. I think he averaged something like 10 attempts per game. In fact, I think Diogu's game against Phoenix really reminded me of Karl Malone in his glory days. I would love it if he turned out like that. But he is going to have to get into the weight room and lose some of that baby fat...
On the Murphy thought, I'm not worried about his fire or his desire. His Rookie year he was attacking the hoop, jumping, slashing.. he just didn't have the bounce the last couple of years due to his weight and injuries. I hope he comes back healthy. If so, he can turn some heads of some GMs. I like Murphy, i just think he's not the right fit for this team. And I certainly am not part of the Murphy at center club. There are so many question marks about this season.. I can't wait to see how it pans out.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Warriorfansnc93:</div><div class="quote_post">Remember how many times Karl Malone used to get to the line per game. I think he averaged something like 10 attempts per game. In fact, I think Diogu's game against Phoenix really reminded me of Karl Malone in his glory days. I would love it if he turned out like that. But he is going to have to get into the weight room and lose some of that baby fat...</div> That's funny, one of my buddies said the exact same thing about the Karl Malone thing.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting custodianrules2:</div><div class="quote_post">That's funny, one of my buddies said the exact same thing about the Karl Malone thing. </div> Just imagine a pick and roll between him and Baron Davis...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting CohanHater:</div><div class="quote_post">On the Murphy thought, I'm not worried about his fire or his desire. His Rookie year he was attacking the hoop, jumping, slashing.. he just didn't have the bounce the last couple of years due to his weight and injuries. I hope he comes back healthy. If so, he can turn some heads of some GMs. I like Murphy, i just think he's not the right fit for this team. And I certainly am not part of the Murphy at center club. There are so many question marks about this season.. I can't wait to see how it pans out.</div> Yeah maybe Troy was injured. He's definitely the proud type not to admit it or make excuses. Also, I remember him being a tad bit better on the defensive end for some reason. He would hustle more at least.
